Posts filed under ‘Let’s Go Chipper’

Summertime is the perfect time to let kids explore while you’re outside; whether in your backyard, the beach, or a local park keeping everyone within eyesight or earshot creates a safe space for children to exercise some independence. And these explorations usually end up with kids coming back to you with pockets full of special “finds.”

This week we welcome our summer Chipper Intern, Alexa Swartz, and her ideas on where to put the treasures you decide to keep.

Chipper Intern – Alexa Swartz

I remember collecting things as a child when out hiking with my family. Many items are a part of nature so my parents always taught us the principals of Leave No Trace which meant we needed to leave most of what we found with nature and the animals using it as a resource for their habitat. But some items made it home and the mementos soon took over drawers and countertops. I like thinking back on this time and I realize it’s so easy to allow kids to contain these souvenirs with fun containers to store them in!

As an intern for Lets Go Chipper I will be posting weekly container crafts to offer ideas for all your keepsakes – they even make great packaging ideas for birthday gifts or housewarming gifts.

Not only will these crafts create a fun way for kids to store all their pieces of summer, but making crafts actually helps improve fine motor skills, strategic thinking and builds self-esteem in the process. Read more about the benefits of crafting!

Week 1: The Gum Container

What you need:

A plastic gum container

Mod Podge, glue, or tape

Scissors

Pipe Cleaners

Magazines, paper, paint or anything you want to stick on your container

Creativity

How to make your container:

Set out materials on an easily cleanable surface allowing your child to create without worry. Breaking down a cardboard box is an easy way to create a workspace that protects counters or tables you don’t want to get dirty.

Encourage your child to make a plan and think about what they want before immediately jumping in.

Feel free to create! There is no right or wrong in this project so let their imaginations take flight and see what the container ends up looking like. Let them use any medium and design they want. This project is about the process and fun and memories that come from creating the container, don’t dwell on if the child will like the outcome and just let them enjoy the process.

Enjoy! Fill the container with anything, from pens and pencils at school, to sticks and rocks found around the garden. Let it contain whatever the child perceives to be important to them.

What else would you do with this container? Share with Chipper in the comments below!

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Explore the outdoors with your little one(s) and collect nature materials to make cute critters! Not only will you a foster a connection with nature, your kids can also exercise their imaginations and creativity. There is so much you can find outside: nuts, rocks, sticks, leaves, petals, and more.

Adventure into the great outdoors with young children and use the natural materials as craft supplies for creating creatures from the children’s imagination or animals identified on the walks.

Collect with a Partner

Timing: One Hour
Explore and collect: 15 minutes
Craft Time: 30 minutes
Extra 15 minutes: Travel time and padding because projects with young children will always take longer than you plan!

What you need:

Reusable tote to carry found treasures

Cardboard bases from recycled boxes and scrap paper and materials for accessorizing crafts

Glue and string

A partner or chaperone

Imagination

Create a crocodile!

Chippers Tips:

Explain the rules of staying together “You can play, but don’t stray!” and the project

Check off that everyone has their tote for collecting items. While exploring, be it in the backyard of a school facility, house, childcare center, or beyond the yard, keep children on track by talking about what they might find; the colors, shapes, texture and more.

Assist young children with glue or glue gun and string assembly.

Welcome conversation while exploring. What do you see, hear, smell and feel?

Get bit by nature…creatively!

Upon returning, sit down and talk about the items in the bag and what can be made; a butterfly from leaves, a nature cake, a boat from sticks, a car from rocks and bark. Welcome the conversation and encourage the creativity!

Like this:

Chipper playfully teaches Earth and Space Science, Creative Arts and Fine Motor Skills.Create your own special nature journal with recycled materials that can both help save the environment and embrace the beauty of nature!

During your outdoor adventures, help your child engage their five senses to evaluate what they see, smell, taste, hear, and feel. When they find something that peaks their curiosity, ask questions and peak their interest in drawing or writing it in their journal.

Ideas to inspire creativity – cloud chasing or finding characters in clouds, bird watching, evaluating insects, making silly faces with friends, eating a piece of fruit and finding various types of leaves!

Tell your child to, “Play but don’t stray!” when they are exploring and to “Keep your tail on the trail!”

Make your journal.

Making your Nature Journal:

For cover: Decide on the size of your journal and trace and cut out from your cereal box or every day box. You can use either side of the box to face out.

Decorate the cover using collected and coloring materials.

Journal pages: cut the paper bags or found papers to just within the size of the cover.

With adult help use a hole puncher to make 3-5 holes lined up on the front and back cover. Do the same with the inside journal pages.

Weave the yarn/string to connect the journal and tie a bow at the top or bottom to secure the bindry.

Time for creating! Encourage story telling through pictures and images, words, and found materials all celebrating nature or daily experiences. Make it a weekly activity to explore the outdoors and then add to your nature journal!

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Celebrate Easter and Earth Day with this cute recycle bunny craft! For many of us, Easteris the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. For others, this time of Spring celebrates the Jewish holiday of Passover. However, for those who aren’t religious, Easter is followed with the tradition of coloring hard-boiled eggs and giving baskets of candy.

This tradition of bunnies, eggs and candy go back to the holiday’s root purpose: procreation! Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility. Her symbols (like the egg and the bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols. After Roman Emperor Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent the rebirth Jesus as well as the spring season of birth and growth. Who knew!

Have some fun with your kids creating this colorful and playful bunny from a recycled toilet roll. Create a habitat for the bunny with other recycled material and let your children’s imaginations roam or take it outside and explore nature with your recycle craft bunny!

Supplies:

Recycled Toilet Roll

Paper (Chipper used red and white but choose any two colors or use paint!)

Markers

Pompoms

Scissors

Glue

Googly Eyes

Directions:

Cut two long skinny bunny ears out in the same color and cut two more smaller ones out in a different color. Glue the smaller ones inside of the larger ones to create bunny ears.

Cover the roll with paper your used for larger ears, cut with scissors to fit and tape or glue to attach to toilet roll. Or paint it whatever color you like!

Glue the ears to the inside of the toilet paper roll with smaller ears facing forward.

Glue on googly eyes and small pompoms for nose and tail. Add any other decorations that you can think of!

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Can you believe we have a generation growing up realizing that we are all different and that we should celebrate not criticize, shame, nor ignore individuals needing our kindness and support. We live during a time when parents have enough information teach their children acceptance and even more so to acknowledge that we all have a right to reach our potential? We share knowledge through so many channels and, collectively, we can make change for the better.

One of the best ways to teach your children acceptance is through education. Give age-appropriate information and then look for influential and inspiring individuals either aligned with the cause or someone faced with the challenges. Share your own experiences as a child and how you overcame indifferences through education.

When you educate you empower empathy and the interest to help. Collaborate within your community and come up with ideas to support causes or share Chipper’s Making Change for the Better initiative where every person can help reduce waste while increasing financial support for others in need.

We are moved and inspired by the work of Dr. Temple Grandin, animal science doctor, professor, best selling author, autism activist and probably most noted in the livestock industry as an exceptional animal behaviorist for her teaching the industry more humane livestock handling processes. In 2004, Grandin received the “Proggy” award in the “Visionary” category, from PETA. It should be noted that Dr. Temple Grandin was diagnosed with Autism at the age of two but she regularly speaks and shares of her success stemming from early support and a supportive foundation built by family and educators. Read her most recent book.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex set of neurological disorders and developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges. ASD is generally diagnosed before three years of age. There is no known cause of autism, but early intervention plays a huge role in treatment and can greatly improve a child’s development.

Autism is a spectrum condition; this means that although some people with autism may share certain difficulties; their conditions may affect them in different ways. Many individuals with autism can live independent lives but others may need a lifetime of special support. In March 2012, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued their ADDM autism prevalence report. The report revealed that 1 in every 88 births in the United States is shown to have a form of autism. The report also shows on average 1 in 54 boys were diagnosed with autism, and 1 in 252 girls. Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.

The Facts

There is no medical detection or cure for autism

Autism costs a family $60,000 a year on average

Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many prevalent childhood diseases

Boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have autism

The annual cost of autism is $60 billion

The annual cost of autism per person over a lifespan is 3.2 million

The annual cost of autism is $60 billion

60% of costs are in adult services

The Hope

When we all work together we can help fund more research into the causes of autism, provide families with financial support, and increase awareness and acceptance of autism spectrum disorders.

Did you know? One 14.5 ounce can (standard soup can) filled with mixed coins can average anywhere from $12 – $45+. Imagine if you find a few dollar bills laying around as well – put them in the can and let’s help contribute.Your spare change makes a difference!

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You see the signs right? And it seems obvious but millions of pounds of trash and plastic enter our waterways through our curbside drainage system each year. The effect on our plant and sea life is huge: about 22,000 bodies of water in the United States are considered “impaired” by the Environmental Protection Agency due to this pollution.

As we celebrate National Wildlife Week and the theme being “water,” be inspired to take action over just acknowledging the importance of clean water for our animals on land and sea.

What we can do:

If you see it, own it: Lead by example and pick up trash when you see it on the ground. Use good judgment, plastic/foil chip bags, paper bags, and plastic bottles are generally safe to pick up but be safe first.

Make the grade: Collaborate with your classroom and take a walk through the neighborhood. A good stroll is healthy for both mind and body and the clean up helps foster a deeper connection with your community.

Power to the Park Ranger – Chipper is the most enthusiastic ambassador in town and always pays respect to the ranger. Invite your local state or national park ranger, or junior ranger, into the classroom to teach kids about streams, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, even the little puddle along the path. All give life to the forest and eventually make it to the sea. Teaching kids the principals of Leave No Trace will inspire them to pick up any litter along the trails during spring and summer hiking and camping adventures

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When I first created Chipper his big adventures were to start at the windowsill of a bed and breakfast cottage nestled within a bed of color reminiscent of a Monet’s Garden painting. Chipper would delight in tales delivered by the cottage owner while guests were off exploring for the day; because Chipper knew kids were meant to be neither seen nor heard from here. I remember sharing the mission of my little squirrel with a producer whom looked at me and said: “Squirrels are rodents and I hate rodents in my garden.” That squirrels are active, curious creatures ready to explore and engage meant little to this producer …and, more importantly, passionate gardener.

Last week, I remembered my early inspiration after reading Weeds Find a Way, by author and poet Cindy Jenson-Elliott and illustrated by Carolyn Fisher. That another writer would find beauty and personality in something otherwise destined to be dug up and discarded gave me a sense of camaraderie so I flipped through the pages. And then, I took the hardback book with me to story time. How would the kids see themselves when asked: “Are you a weed or a plant?” “And what is the difference?”

Both the story and illustrations captured the children’s (6-10 year olds) attention and the word for the day became “empathy.” The story excited conversation and reasons why we should just let the weeds grow.

There is a very whimsical rhythm to the flow of the text and illustrations and you feel like you are being blown carefree through the pages. Take time to discuss what it means to coexist and delight in the conversation. I highly recommend this book for the classroom and a perfect page-turner for the overnight with the grandparents. Pull the jacket cover off and save it as my ten year old did as she is determined to save this one for her own children some day. “I want it to look new again.”

The Chipper mom in me took to finding Jenson-Elliott so I could go knee deep into the weeds to learn a little bit more. I found a late bloomer to science and a teacher making up time as Jenson-Elliott designs Teacher guides to support her growing list of children’s books. Enjoy our conversation and happy planting:

Do you see children as weeds or flowers/plants? Weeds as plants are a wonderful metaphor for children. They are resilient, tenacious, beautiful, clever, adaptable, without all of our interventions, just as they are.

What is your earliest experience realizing the difference between a weed and a flower: I remember my curiosity about the difference between the planted and an unplanted world. I remember wondering around age four who planted certain plants. We lived in a really verdant area around Philadelphia, with yards that had probably once been landscaped but had reverted to a tangle of green.

We had a very overgrown rose garden that my mother struggled to bring to order, and I remember many afternoons running around in the back while she trimmed the thorny stems. We were new to the big old house, and it had been inhabited by a very old man before we moved in, so the formal rows of roses were leggy. One day I found remnants of a vegetable garden, broken down corn stalks, a tiny ear of Indian corn, growing behind the garage. All around it were wildflowers—weeds! —Queen Anne’s lace, black eyed Susans. One day I found a jack-in-the-pulpit. I have a very clear memory of seeing the little “man” inside his pulpit and how wonderful it was.

Living in suburbia, and seeing urban landscaping, a lot of kids—myself included—may think that someone went around and planted everything they see. I think I asked my mother, “Who planted those trees?” I really didn’t understand her answer: “No one, they just grew there.” It seemed mysterious and amazing, this world without people. Even today, I find that fact really moving, almost a relief. Singer Dana Lyons has a great line in his song, “Willy Says:” “Here’s a story that you may not comprehend. The parking lot will crack and bloom again. There’s a world beneath the pavement that will never end.” The natural world is so beautiful without our intervention. We don’t really have to do anything—just appreciate it.

What tips can you offer parents and educators on using the analogy of weeds/flowers and the lessons in developing friendships? I have curriculum in my free curriculum guide, downloadable on my website, that speaks to this issue. While I did not intentionally set out to teach a social-emotional lesson, I realized how embedded those lessons are after the book came out. Kind of funny that way—poets often don’t know what their poems are about until after they are written.

Weeds can teach us a lot in the social-emotional realm. They hold many qualities that we hope to engender in our children as human beings, and as learners. We hope they have grit – the ability to stick with something no matter what, withstand hardship, and thrive in spite of – and because of – challenges.

Weeds can also teach us a lot about appreciating the diverse qualities of others – the hidden beauties we may not see the first time we meet someone. Weeds teach us to look again at something we think we know well – or someone we think we have all figured out. When we have an opinion about someone – we think they are a “weed” rather than a flower, for example – we jump to conclusions about who they are. When we look more deeply, we can come to appreciate is that everyone has wonderful qualities – even thorny personalities.

Some wonderful curricula and teacher training for helping children learn to appreciate each other in the classroom and beyond are the Responsive Classroom and Second Step, and my all-time favorite book, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk.

What’s your favorite weed? In my neighborhood, I think cheeseweed is one of my favorites. It is in the mallow family, like many landscaping plants, and has geranium-like leaves. I would love to see fireweed, though, which Carolyn Fisher put in those beautiful final pictures in the book. I was not familiar with it before she did the art, but everyone I have shown the book to who is from Canada or the northwest says, “Ah! Fireweed! I love fireweed!” Carolyn, who lives in Canada, added many weeds I didn’t know in the art, and then I went back in and added them in the text.

How do your children inspire your storytelling? My science work with children has most inspired my work. I came to science late – in my early 30s –when I went back to school and took as many science classes as I could fit in before I had to go back to work full time. Every class was a revelation, a wonder, from biology to chemistry to geology and physics. Teaching science and gardening, and writing about science and gardening, have been ways for me to explore ideas more deeply and share those with children. We learn science through experiencing that joy and wonder of the world, and I would like every child to have a chance to feel the awe of understanding something amazing about our extraordinary ordinary world.